Goodbye Yellow Pages, Hello Green Pages?

How many phone books do you reckon you have in your house? When was the last time you used one? When you get a new one, what do you do with the old one? Recycle it? Ever wondered how many people just chunk theirs in the trash?

According to Cleveland.com business news, Ohio state legislators just gave AT&T permission to stop throwing white pages on everyone's doorstep. Now Ohioans will have to request one. AT&T, clearly looking to cut costs, cited high cell phone usage and online services as reasons to quit the free white pages service. However, they still plan to print the Yellow Pages, which is paid for by advertising. Various yellow and white pages organizations deliver over 540 million unsolicited books every year!

Groups like Yellow Pages Goes Green are fighting to eliminate all Yellow Pages. They offer an opt out form as well as some interesting FAQs.

Personally, I think the calling and requesting approach will lead to a lot less waste, but opting out is better than nothing. But just so you know, you can recycle your unused phone books curbside thanks to the City of Memphis' excellent program.


Community Clean Sweep, a nonprofit recycling company, is in charge of Kern County's annual phone book drive, a 17-year tradition in Bakersfield, California. In 2007, local students lined up 1066 phone books and knocked them down domino style to raise awareness of the recycling program.

I thought this was a pretty cute idea, but unfortunately, they used new rather than old phone books for the event. (I can only assume the phone books were later distributed to households, but this event would have been more impressive, although admittedly, more challenging, if the 1066 phone books were old ones being donated for recycling rather than news ones donated by AT&T for free press.)